Caracol

"For a drinking experience that someone can easily take on the go — or, more specifically, to the beach, Hugo Ortega’s restaurant Caracol has already got the perfect set-up. This crowd-pleasing drink set is stocked with a custom Caracol cocktail, shaker, six shot glasses, three flavored salts, and a bottle of tequila, all packaged in a Caracol-branded cotton tote." - Brittany Britto Garley

"Caracol comes from the team behind Hugo’s and also does upscale coastal Mexican food. Like most Galleria neighborhood restaurants, Caracol is super bougie— even the air running through the vents somehow feels designer. A small army of ceviches is on the menu, but you’ll be set with the ceviche de caracol, which has pineapple and citrus coating and some fresh conch. Or, the tuna tacos held in blue-flour corn tortillas (and our hearts). And if you need an extravagant seafood moment, get the seafood tower filled with more crustaceans than you can count. Come here when you want to have a fancy date night or just really want to impress someone." - chelsea thomas, gianni greene

"A seafood feast packed with coastal Mexican flavors awaits at chef Hugo Ortega’s seafood-focused restaurant. Start dinner with red snapper ceviche, then dig into heartier offerings like fire-roasted lobster served with beans and rice, and pan-seared scallops served with roasted cauliflower, red chard, and a lemon chipotle cream sauce." - Brittany Britto Garley

"At Hugo Ortega’s coastal Mexican restaurant in Uptown, the focus is on dishes like roasted oysters, ceviche, and whole wood-grilled fish, but its the restaurant’s one of a kind dessert, El Coco, that is not to be missed. The spherical dessert touts a shell made of chocolate coconut, and half the fun is in using a mini wooden mallet to crack it open, revealing a filling of coconut buttercream, coconut ganache, and coconut streusel." - Brittany Britto Garley

"Caracol, which means “snail” in Spanish, emerged from Chef Hugo Ortega’s memories of making ceviche de caracol (conch ceviche) in his brother Jose Luis’ kitchen at a resort in Playa del Carmen. The Post Oak restaurant — one of many in the Mexican chef’s Houston restaurant empire — bears the gastropod’s name, and showcases elegant coastal fare rooted in coastal Mexican cooking. The menu is worth in-depth exploration, but the tacos de atún (tuna) and ceviche de coco are excellent starting points." - Brittany Britto Garley, Kayla Stewart